Women may be gaining ground in a male dominated society in the real world (see Hillary Clinton), but what about in the virtual world? Well, they’re getting there. Sony’s new spy themed console MMO is even concerned with “technical” details such as the difference between A-line and pencil skirts. It’s a brace new world for traditionally sexist game design, indeed.

Tale of Sony’s attention to detail comes from MTV’s Multiplayer blog and their interview with Sherry Floyd of SOE Seattle. Floyd works on the art content for The Agency. It’s all part of a bigger piece on Sony’s initiative to get more women into game design through the G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship program for women wanting to study game design in college. Floyd noted about the game she is working on (more…)

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For every positive, there is always one negative. In the case of Metal Gear Solid 4 the positive is the final confirmation of when Snake’s swan song will arrive, but the negative came in a recent interview with MGS creator Hideo Kojima.

In the interview Kojima revealed that certain features had to be cut from the game due to the 50 gigabyte size of the Blue Ray disc for the PS3. It wasn’t indicated what features would be lost but it had been indicated earlier that due to size limitations there would be no Japanese voice track on the American version of the game, and vice-versa. (more…)

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Are video games really all sex and violence? Not according to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). It recently released its ratings numbers for 2007 and revealed that only 6% of titles received a Mature rating.

In fact, games in general got very acceptable ratings with 74% receiving an Everyone rating of some form. Another 20% of titles received the Teen rating. So, what does all of this mean to gamers?

For one, it means that mature games simply aren’t being made, despite the aging of the gaming audience. Whether this is due to fear of social backlash or limiting a game’s potential market is debatable. Still, this is hardly the future of games many pictured fifteen years ago after the success of Mortal Kombat and Doom. (more…)

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